A Blair in Hand/Two in the Bush

by Christine Emmert

I just returned from a few days in London across the rather large pond that is getting to seem more like a mud puddle every day with the two bullies on the block (Bush and Blair) guarding their turf. Both countries seem to have similarities. People are anxious about their pay cheques and the direction their leaders (I use this word loosely) are taking them.

I saw two rather upsetting protests. One outside the Houses of Parliament and one behind Trafalgar Square where Lord Nelson stands high. Both of these demonstrations were aimed at the violence in the Middle East. On the news there was increased pressure for more policemen in Britain to be armed -- bringing the theme of violence home.

Many people used to excuse Blair over Bush on the grounds that Blair was an eloquent spokesman for his side. If making beautiful speeches were all, then Blair would be Master. In the early days of this embrace of the two, I would listen patiently while Bush ambled through the thicket of his thoughts and then breathe a sigh when at last Blair approached the press to explain in English what was going on. It is sad when charisma takes us from the meat of the matter.

Blair holds on to his role as Prime Minister with increasingly anxious fingers every day. Economy and nation building are the feet stepping on those fingers. Oddly enough Bush was given another thumbs up by the voting public with the gaining of Republican office seekers in the election.

I look at these two men, so different, and yet so entwined in a belief that the world has not changed all that much in the last twenty years. Ronald Reagan could shout for a wall to come down. And when the wall fell, the world changed forever. These men are still looking at a wall. Perhaps the one the Israelis are constructing? They do not see the landscape beyond the wall is very changed, and the toll on the young men and women who must patrol those boundaries beyond the wall is not acknowledged by a single tear.

Two men. Two countries. One heart. A cold heart for much of the world. It is not enough to acknowledge our own in this new world. We must acknowledge others. And sometimes live with the differences they present.

The days of Empires are over. The global village requires more than a mud puddle.